Thirteen years ago, director Edgar Wright made horror-comedy history with the fantastic Shaun of the Dead. And while Wright’s subsequent films have parodied the buddy cop tropes, science fiction, and video games, he still has an obvious love for the horror genre. As such, Wright has taken to sharing 100 of his favorite horror movies to celebrate Halloween.
Wright took to Mubi to post his list of horror films, under the header, “Here, for Halloween, is a chronological list of my favorite horror movies. It’s not in any way an official best of list and merely represents my tastes at the moment.” Judging by the movies listed, Wright seems to have an affection for the original Universal monster flicks, including James Whale’s Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man, as well as Karl Freund’s The Mummy. But there’s only a single Dracula movie on the list, and it’s Terence Fisher’s 1959 adaptation starring the late Christopher Lee.
It’s also obvious whom Wright counts among his favorite horror directors. Whale has four films on the list (including The Old Dark House), John Carpenter has three (Halloween, The Fog, and The Thing) as does Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The People Under the Stairs, and Scream), while David Cronenberg (The Brood and The Fly), Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho and Frenzy), Joe Dante (The Howling and Gremlins), and Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II) have two films each. However, it’s zombie maven George Romero who lands five movies on the list: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Martin, Creepshow, and Day of the Dead.
The vast majority of Wright’s picks come from before 1990, but there are still newer movies that he clearly appreciates. The most recent film on Wright’s list is Train To Busan, but he also spread some love to other modern horror flicks including It Follows, Raw, The Babadook, The Witch, The Cabin in the Woods, and Let the Right One In.
You can read the rest of Wright’s picks here. He also noted that “if you feel something is missing – MAKE YOUR OWN LIST.”
What do you think about Wright’s choices for the top 100 horror films? Scare up some thoughts in the comment section below!
Images: Universal Pictures/Hammer Film Productions/Next Entertainment World
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